safadovssagradoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“safado” and “sagrado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,081
“safado” frequency rank
#4,429
“sagrado” frequency rank
14510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature safado sagrado
Definition diz-se de homem que é malandro, pilantra, trapaceiro que se sagrou

Letter map: safado vs sagrado

Shared letters muted; letters that set safado and sagrado apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. safado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against sagrado's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
safado
7 ch
sagrado

Corpus notes: safado and sagrado

safado and sagrado are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

safado is recorded at frequency rank #10,081, classified as anadj. sagrado is at rank #4,429, tagged as anadj, pronounced /sɐ.ˈɡɾa.du/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 14510, this pair ranks #57,547 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of safado vs sagrado

Shared letters: ados. Private to "safado": f. Private to "sagrado": gr.

"safado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sagrado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • safado ← asfado · saafdo · safaddo · safaod · safdao · saffado · sfaado · ssafado
  • sagrado ← asgrado · sagardo · saggrado · sagraddo · sagraod · sagrdao · sagrrado · sargado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "safado" for "sagrado" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "safado" vs "sagrado" - which ranks higher?
"sagrado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,429 in our Portuguese list, against #10,081 for "safado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "safado" vs "sagrado" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "safado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sagrado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,547 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "safado" and "sagrado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "safado vs sarado". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #57,547 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list